Rebirth of the Broken Luna A Second Chance at Luna's Heart novel Chapter 331

Chapter 331

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“Nothing,” Lake said immediately, his cheeks flushing darker. “It was stupid. It doesn’t matter.”

“It was brilliant,” Riley corrected, finally sitting up. His hair was mussed from wrestling, sticking up at odd angles that made him look

wonderfully, perfectly disheveled. “One of the nightwalkers was being a jerk-”

“It was always being a jerk,” Lake interjected.

“–and it kept sneaking into our area to steal food or mess with our stuff,” Riley continued. “We told Andy, but she didn’t care. Said we

needed to learn to defend our territory ourselves.”

I felt my jaw tighten at yet another example of Andy’s casual cruelty, but I kept my expression neutral. The boys were opening up,

sharing something real, and I wasn’t going to ruin it by showing how much their stories hurt me.

“So Lake came up with a plan,” Riley said, his eyes lighting up with the memory. “He waited until the nightwalker came through in its

shadow form-that’s when they’re hardest to track but also when they’re most confident, like they think they’re invincible.”

“I set up two portals,” Lake said quietly, and I could hear both pride and embarrassment in his voice. “One on the floor, one on the

ceiling, positioned right in the path I knew the nightwalker would take. Made them face each other perfectly.”

Ollie bounced excitedly. “And then what happened?”

“The nightwalker came through in shadow form, all smug and invisible,” Riley said, starting to grin again. “And it didn’t see the portal

until it was too late. It fell through the floor portal-”

“-came out the ceiling portal-” Lake added.

“-fell through the floor portal again-”

-came out the ceiling-”

“-and just kept falling and falling and falling!” Riley finished, dissolving into laughter again. “Like it was stuck in a vacuum! You should have seen it, Ollie. The nightwalker was going so fast, just this dark blur falling in a loop, and it couldn’t figure out how to stop because every time it tried to solidify to break free, it would hit one of the portal edges and get knocked back into shadow form.”

I tried to picture it-this terrifying shadow creature that had been stalking us at the store, trapped in an endless loop of falling, unable to escape the simple geometry of a child’s trick. Despite the circumstances, despite everything these boys had endured, I felt a smile tugging at my lips.

“How long did you keep it going?” I asked.

Lake and Riley exchanged glances, something passing between them that spoke of shared experience and private jokes.

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12:57 Thu, Jan 29 M…

Chapter 331

“Twenty minutes,” Lake admitted. “I would have stopped sooner, but Riley wanted to see if the nightwalker would get dizzy.”

“It did!” Riley insisted, his laughter bubbling up again. “When Lake finally closed the portals, it stumbled out and couldn’t walk

straight for like an hour. Kept running into walls and swearing in this really weird gravelly voice.”

“What did Andy say when she found out?” I asked, trying to keep my tone light even though I was already bracing for the answer.

Andy didn’t seem like the type who appreciated her assets showing initiative, even clever initiative.

The joy dimmed slightly in both boys’ faces, but didn’t completely disappear. “She never found out,” Lake said. “The nightwalker was

too embarrassed to admit it got trapped by a kid. Especially since nightwalkers are supposed to be these elite operatives that are

impossible to trick.”

“It avoided our area after that,” Riley added with satisfaction. “Guess it didn’t want to risk getting looped again.”

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12:57 Thu, Jan 29 M

Reborn From Regret A Second Chance at Luna’s Heart